Ma première semaine à Annecy, France

So currently I am just into my 2nd week of sunny Annecy in the south-eastern Haute-Savoie region of France and having a very good (very hot) time!

Annecy first impressions
Although I had seen photos of Annecy before and knew that it was an idyllic holiday village with a gorgeous lake and sweeping mountains as a backdrop - I don't think I actually fully comprehended how gorgeous and idyllic it really is! My host mum is super nice - and so are her two sisters and mum who are visiting as well as her son. The apartment that I'm living in is awesome :) It's a small two-bedroom apartment that my host mum rents just a stone's throw away from the lake (it's possible to see the lake from the balcony) that's filled with beautiful knick-knacks. I think the thing that strikes me about this apartment is that it's filled with stuff but my host mum has managed to make it look all so neat and well put-together! I mean - my room is constantly filled with stuff but it just looks.. ...like there's crap everywhere haha.


I think the best way to describe Annecy is that it's a really, really big town. I wouldn't exactly classify it as a city because it's still got this sleepy-summer-town vibe to it but it's certainly got infrastructure like a shopping district, a handful of supermarkets and car-dealerships as well as a functional public transport system.

Furthermore Annecy's going to host the 2018 winter olympics so I can't wait to watch the telly then and be able to say "I've been there!!"


Weather

 Hothothothothothot HOT! Lol. For the week that I've been here already it has not dropped below 30° celsius !! So good hehe. Sometimes it gets a bit baking to just be wandering the streets at 2PM in the afternoon. I think the weather is something else I did not expect to find in France. I mean I knew it was summer in Europe still and I know that parts of France can have quite a Mediterranean climate but I honestly not expecting how hot it was going to be here - especially since people have always told me how gorgeous Annecy looks in the winter! (Not to mention the fact that Annecy will be hosting 2018's winter olympic games.) It kind of makes me wish that Perth could have this extreme variation in the differences in climate. All we've got is HOT and then eh it's a bit cold - but no snow for me to go snowboarding (or any mountains for that either...) 

Food & drink
Overall food has been pretty good here. I haven't had anything MINDBLOWINGLY OMG WHERE HAS THIS CUISINE BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE kind of meals but yah - overall it's been good. I've been eating lot-sa baguettes broken up into little pieces - the type where it's quite hard on the outside but squishy on the inside. It's been good but maybe I just haven't been that much of a bread fan because I haven't orgasmed over it or anything like that.

I had the best restaurant-steak of my LIFE at a restaurant by the canals in Annecy. Seriously - restaurants in Perth don't know how to cook steak according to rare-med-well!! My medium steak ACTUALLY CAME OUT AS A MEDIUM STEAK!!!!! And it was soooooo delicious. So delicious. (and big)

Also I think here in France they really like their pommes de terre - potatoes! I have to be careful about what I eat with all these carbohydrates like bread and potates lying in sinisterely tasty wait on the dinner table!!

Not to mention I also had a serve of six escargots for an entrée to my delicious steak dinner! Heheh. They were on the good side of interesting - marinated in some green herbs and spices. A French teacher once said to me that if you like eating squid/calamari - you'll be able to handle escargot. And he was right. My next visit to a restaurant will entail me trying some cuisses de grenouille - frogs legs!

Wine. MmmmmmmmmMMMMMmmmm wine. The rosés, champagnes and reds I've tasted so far have been amayyyzing! Yummy. That is all haha. Actually as I type - my host grandma just offered me some cidre rosé - which is basically rosé cider and omg it's AMAZING. I have never tasted anything like that!!!!!! It's sweet but zingy at the same time. Yumyumyumyumyum


People/culture
Overall all the people that I have met in Annecy have been pretty friendly - with an exception of a few grumps who can't be bothered tolerating my slow French. I totally faux-pas'd on my first day in Annecy *facepalm* we had just sat down from lunch after I had been picked up from the train station and I had already started sipping my wine before the toasts!! Faux pas! Glass chinking and toasting is a pretty big deal. Before each meal a santé! is proposed and everyone has to chink glasses with everyone else whilst maintaining eye-contact and saying santé to each other - which means 'health'.

I guess I have already experienced a little bit of that European 'openness' that you hear about - how no topic is sacred and personal questions can be asked from day one. Literally after day 3 or so my host mum's sisters were already asking me if I had put on weight from eating the new food! I just said that I didn't know and rolled with it but I did note that it was something an Australian family probably wouldn't ask so casually to a stranger.



Language/language school
So as you may or may not know - I am actually in Annecy because I have enrolled into a private language course at IFALPES - aka Institut Française des Alpes for two weeks. In short - the language school/homestay decision was a frigging GOOD idea. My classes range from a little-easy to appropriately challenging which is just an awesome mix of grammar revision and challenging grammatical and conversational application of my French knowledge!! I was initially placed into group 4 (out of 8) but after two days it was very obvious to the teachers that the content was too easy for me... I mean at that stage they were learning HOW to form the conditional. Um. Yeah. After 3 years of university-level French I had already had the formation of various grammatical usages down pat - so then I got shifted up to group 5 where they're still revising grammar in general but adopting its usage in more complicated scenarios. E.g., on Friday I had to read an article on voting/politics in France and then we had a 2 hour discussion about it with the class!! Awesome :)


My last point there about 'awesome' segues nicely into what I think about the teaching quality at IFALPES. Basically - I think it's very, very good. I think it's got to do with the fact it's a private school so thus there is enough money there to hire plenty-o French teachers. Also - with my intensive 4-hour classes a day there is PLENTY OF TIME TO DO STUFF!!!!!! I think this is what's made the me the most happy. When I get a sheet with exercises to do in class - I actually have time to do it! As in the whole sheet - without stressing and clock-watching. The atmosphere in the classes is definitely studious but also a lot of fun because we have time to crunch out sentences and exercises and then time afterward to DISCUSS all our questions and concerns!

One thing in particular that I have noticed is that maybe half of the students here learning French already know English as a 2nd language. From this I can gather that having knowledge of English takes precedence over French...

One problem with my French that I've always thought I had was that my grammatical and writing skills in general were waaay too advanced for my speaking and listening skills and now that I'm in France I'm noticing it's absolutely true. I believe I was placed into group 4 based on the oral test where I had to respond to questions and answer but I believe I was moved up into group 5 after two days because I essentially blitzed a small grammar test they gave me. I was finished before anyone else... There is very little else I can do at the moment than work hard to fix up this disparity in my skills.

So how is that fixing up the disparity working for me at the moment? Overall - well. I have definitely been speaking a loooot a lot a lot of French since I've arrived. My host family speak no English at all - so that's been really great for making me use my French. However it's been really hard as well. When they speak slowly/normally/clearly it's very possible for me to understand what is going on and hold a conversation - however they're also a close knit family who at times speak French at a ridiculously break-neck pace whilst I stare on glossy-eyed and slightly drunk during meals from all the various wines I've been drinking haha.

What has ABSOLUTELY improved for me is that I have lost the inherent shyness I had for speaking French since I started learning the language. In Perth I suffered an inferiority complex where I felt that I could not speak French out of fear I'd be ridiculed for speaking wrong (which I knew that I would absolutely do). When in France - you blab out what you want to say otherwise you don't say anything at all!! After ONE WEEK of solid French speaking I feel that I could return to UWA and hold a conversation with my teachers in French non-stop. Although I am 10000km away from being fluent in French - it really has dawned on me that I am able to speak some French and hold a half-way decent conversation. I have all the tools for it stored in my head...



The other thing I have really enjoyed about my enrollment at IFALPES is that all the other students at my level are in the same boat as me... They all have some decent level of French and are serious about improving their French. For the first time in my life I have conducted whole days of continuous conversation in French with other people whose native language is actually English. It is seriously so amazing and it's made me so happy. So happy :)

So now I have another week in beautiful Annecy ahead of me and after that 3 days in Nancy with my friend Chloe from uni :) My confidence in French has leaped up wonderfully and now I am hoping that my vocab and listening skills will too. Sometimes I feel a bit down because my French family speak sooo fast and I don't understand them but then I remember this is the most French I have ever spoken in my life and that I have only been here for 1 week. I still have another 6½ months in here :)

As a passing note - I received an e-mail from Lille 3 saying that they've received my e-mail about my change-in-date for arriving at Résidence Triolo - so now I don't have to stress about that. I am seeeeeeriously keen for my upcoming semester in Lille!!

Jessica

A Paris pour la première fois

Mesdames et monsieurs

I’m smashing out a small blog entry on the 3.5 hour train trip from Paris (Gare de Lyon) to the regional town/city Annecy.

So after a horrific plane trip from Dubai to Paris where the little boy in the seat next to me soiled his nappy not once but twice – I have been haunted by the smell of baby poo!

Everything after the plane trip has been really great though. I had ordered a shuttle transfer from Charles de Gaulle airport to my hotel in the 11ème arrondisement on my own back in Perth and I wasn’t sure what to expect because they couldn’t charge my credit card and told me to pay cash to the driver. This left me kind of … wary of the reliability of the service. However! The guy was there (he was actually the owner) with a sign with my name on it written faintly in a ballpoint pen with a friendly attitude. I expected my ‘shuttle’ to be a blocky van type thing but lo-and-behold Micky (the driver) picked me up in his spanking new shiny black BMW sedan!!!! NAICE!

My hostel was not quite as nice as the Sheraton in Dubai :p The pillows are bizarre – they’re this long flat affair and aren’t very squishy at all… The walls of the hostel were a bit thin but I fell asleep quite easily nonetheless.

I was hungry when I got to the hostel so for eats I went directly across the road from the hostel and got a chicken kebab!! And so I have carried on the tradition of eating late night kebabs on a Saturday night ;) Even in Paris! Hehe.

So I have been trying to speak as much French as possible – as long as the topic of conversation is about inane things I can cope quite well! I am making an effort to start every conversation in French – and only swapping to English if I really do not understand.

I thought arriving in Paris would be more of a shock. I think I was more impressed that my driver drove a BMW! This is not to say that Paris isn’t a completely stunning, ultra-European and beautiful place – it’s more that… I don’t know. I just felt relaxed about being there – as if I went to Paris all the time. It was pretty surreal. Travelling is surreal :D I think maybe it’s because I’ve been imagining this trip for so long that it was easy for me just to slip into the mentality of being in France. Also – speaking French is lots of fun (when I understand and am being understood…)

This morning at my hostel I had a breakfast of what was literally bread with jam and water. I wanted cereal but I didn’t think the milk was soy…

With my frikn 27kg suitcase I decided that I’d better not hoof it to the Gare de Lyon so my hostel ordered a taxi for me – which cost 11euro  - 11euro well spent! I got to the station about 50 minutes early and was stress-free.

So now I’m currently zooming past the French country side which is pretty green with smallish sections of fields with not much growing in them. Interspersed through these fields are little farm houses or lil towns! Very quaint.

At 1:30PM today I will reach Annecy and meet my host family for the very first time! I’m keen :D Then I will go look for food haha.

A bientôt

Jessica

Dubai - An Architect's Paradise

Dubai – An architect’s paradise

This blog will be a summary of the last 48-however many hours have lapsed since I departed Perth.

The flight out of Perth

The flight on Emirates to Dubai was pretty good! They do yummy plane food plus they had an awesome collection of movies and TV shows that you could watch on demand which is pretty good. I began to watch Sucker Punch, something I’ve wanted to watch for ages but I gave up  after 15 minutes or so because it’s stupid. Just… really stupid. Full of skinny girls prancing around basically with no explanation why there is a random wise guy giving this chick weapons to fight… random warriors…???

Anywho! I basically slept a lot on the plane and didn’t study any French :p

Arrival in Dubai

I had no dramas picking up my luggage and meeting my hotel transfer guy, and I promptly sat into the driver’s seat of the car by accident hehe. Unfortunately my suitcase busted on the plane! Luckily it was just a 15cm tear along the rim of my suitcase but still… All I could think of when I looked at it was my dad was right and it did break.

Weather-wise; Dubai was not just stinking hot but more bizarrely muggy – with an oppressive wet kind of heat. Outside my hotel my sunglasses literally fogged up because of the heat and moisture! My hotel is situated next to the beach which would explain why.

So I got to my hotel room at about 6:30 am and snoozed for a couple of hours before heading down to the lobby to eat a $30AUD brekky :S (I was soo hungers). The nice man at the restaurant suggested I go to the Dubai mall to buy a new suitcase and so I did.

The fare from my hotel to the Dubai Mall in a taxi was about $13aud and I managed to find an even BETTER suitcase with four wheels that rotated in any direction for about $130. Not bad – obviously not having to buy another stupid suitcase would be better but that’s a pretty good price for what I thought was a good suitcase. I thought my previous suitcase was good but hey…

Anyway time for some impressions of Dubai. First of all – it’s clean and spacious. I think the best way for me to sum it up is like a very upmarket, trendy and self-aware version of poorer Southeast Asia destinations such as Thailand or Bali.

Similarities: everyone drives fast and as if they own the road (i.e., driving in between two lanes, not indicating etc)

Differences: nothing is shabby! All cars are newish and clean, not falling apart.

Similarities: the shape of the signage is similar to that of Southeast Asian countries and some of the roads had this low-built curbs with the black and white painted on the side

Differences: very spacious roads and pathways!! No overcrowding! (Although I was there on a Friday which is like a Sunday to them)

The title of this blog relates to architecture. Seriously this place is just shooting up and up with gorgeous skyscrapers. It’s pretty amazing! My taxi driver must’ve pointed out like 10 hotels as we drove along – all ‘very nice’ and ‘5 star!’. In a way the cityscape resembles what I expect any large city would look like but… desert style – quintessentially Dubai. I was driving along the main freeway with the taxi driver and it struck me how… exciting the city looked. It’s the middle of summer here at the moment – about 43degrees with low-medium visibility because of the sandstorm. I looked ahead at the city and the tall, sleek skyscrapers were all partly shrouded by a yellow sandstorm and frankly it looked so exciting – mysterious and powerful. I am NOT well-educated in the Star Wars universe – but the cityscape reminds me of one of the Star Wars movies I’d seen where they’d be landing at some desert town with the buildings shrouded in yellow-y dirt. Exciting stuff! Partway through my day it really, truly struck me that I was in a part of Arabia. I had flashbacks to Aladdin as I viewed all the square blocky villas where rich people and the royal family lived. It was awesome.

I guess the only other observation I have is that Dubai is a very cosmopolitan place. I’ve heard heaps of different languages in my day here – but where basic English is a necessity for travel-related communication. There must be sooo much money being invested here – buildings and proposed construction sites everywhere.

At ~4pm yesterday I got picked up for my desert safari tour which was pretty good! We drove out of the Dubai metro area for about 45 minutes to the desert sand dunes and our driver took us on some serious 4wding. Thank GOD I took a Kwells tablet, didn’t eat too much beforehand and sat in the front of the car otherwise I would’ve barfed lol. But seriously it was pretty cool, going over all the ridges and dips in the sand – at some points as the driver went over the ridges it felt like the car was about to tip over!! So I’m not sure how long that drive was – about maybe 15-25 minutes? I was feeling SLIGHTLY sick. It’s weird to describe. I am very prone to motion sickness so the erratic swaying of the 4WD was starting to make me feel a bit bleh and my limbs all tingly BUT he was going not too fast – not faster than 2^nd gear generally so it wasn’t like being on a crazy rollercoaster. It was like a very slow rollercoaster with lots of sand :D

Unless you’re from the Pilbara (in WA’s north) you’re probably not really going to know what I’m talking about but some of the sand dunes and tufts of grass around in the desert with jutting rocky mountains reminded me of my home town Tom Price. Tom Price is a town on a mountain surrounded by shitloads of red-dirt mountains and dry-ness. The shape of the landscape in Dubai reminds me of the shape of the landscape in Tom Price – except somewhat more bleached of colour because of all the sand and lack of spindly dried out trees.

The next part of the tour involved driving out to this random desert camp site thing where there was sheesha (I tried liquorice – didn’t realise it was liquorice – I don’t like liquorice but I liked that I could taste it!), henna (when it was my turn the lady was given food by a lil boy and she had to eat it then and there because of Ramadan so I just didn’t bother going back), there was quadbiking (just going around in circles, kinda lame and you had to pay extra) and sandboarding (not very smooth – the sand didn’t let me glide!). We had our dinner there on these low tables where we sat on cushions in the sand and watched a traditional Arabian (I think) dance by this one man. There were meant to be bellydancers but because of Ramadan they didn’t perform.

So that was essentially my day in Dubai. I enjoyed it – but I don’t think I will bother coming back. There are other places in the world to visit and I’m not exactly in the luxury holiday market.

So now I’m looking forward to Paris. My language skills and general conversation will be subpar… I am wondering how I will cope when I get there! But – however – looking forward to it! My biggest concern at the moment is how I will fare with my 27kg suitcase and my heavy-arse backpack :S:S:S:S:S

A bientôt tout le monde         

Jessica (with a French accent!)

Departing Perth within 24 hours

Allo tout le monde! Welcome to my new stream of consciousness blog.

I am currently ⅔ through packing!!! I am feeling pretty de-stressed :)

Ladies and gents - yours truly has committed to a solid half an hour of studying prior to her departure to France... ....amazing. I know that in my previous posts I have been harping on about how I will study in the week before departure but... um... yeah. Kind of didn't happen! I have come to the conclusion that I am sick of studying French. I still LOVE the language - do NOT get me wrong - I am still waaay pumped for France but I am so sick of studying grammar! Argh! I have reached my conjugational threshold! I just want to start using practical everyday French! I crave Saturday (when I land in Paris) because that will mark the day I begin to learn this beautiful language in context and NOT out of a bloody textbook. Hmpf.

So tomorrow evening I fly out of Perth at 10:30PM on Emirates :) Ten hours to Dubai with an ETA of 5:30AM local time. During this flight I hope to A) commence a novel I bought from an opshop, B) maybe catch a cool in-flight movie, C) get some sleep and D) STUDY FRENCH! Hahah. As much as I'm bored of grammar and its endless lists of rules and exceptions - I do need to brush up! Additionally my vocabulary is preetttty bad so I will be spending quite a bit of time perusing my sweet-as lil' phrase book!

In terms of textbooks that I'm taking over, I've got a compact, minimal approach. All I'm taking is my dictionary (très important tu sais), my Nouvelle Becherelle's art of conjugation (a small notepad sized book no thicker than 1cm that covers how to conjugate all forms of French verbs - the granddaddy of verb-books I'm told by my French teacher) and finally another notepad sized book called "French Grammar for English Students of French" which is simply AMAZING. It goes through all the grammar points that any language student must learn efficiently in English first and then French with effective and clear examples. Parfait!

Moving on now to admin stuff. Oh my god I am beginning to sense how French bureaucracy is somewhat subpar. I mean overall I've had pretty good communication with the staff at Lille. I've not had to contact them directly for anything but they have sent fairly timely e-mails to me about my enrollment and my accommodation. One particular correspondence about my residence at Triolo however has put a bump in my otherwise smooth travel plans. They've sent me an e-mail saying that I had to post a hard copy confirmation of reservation back to them by the 22nd of August. Fine. I printed out the document but ... where do I send it to???? What's the address? I sent two copies out - one to the actual residence and one to the Relations Internationales (RI) Office.

Well, if I'm being truthful - I actually sent 3 out. The first confirmation I posted had the wrong date - I realised I could move in earlier than I had written initially. So I e-mailed the RI office but then I got an automated response saying that the office was closed and staff were on holiday til - get this - the 22nd of August! Wtf! I bet heaps of exchange students are furiously typing away and sending e-mails with genuine questions and no one will be there to answer them... So I am SLIGHTLY worried that they may not have received my confirmation letter. It's scary to think they may give my room away... but alas I did send documents back to both the actual university and the residence itself PLUS I sent e-mails to the office so it should be 'confirmation' enough that I'm bloody coming and you'd better have a room for me!! I will try calling them when I'm in France, just in case there is someone in the office.

Oh I have another minor grumble... I'm not sure whether to swing by the RI office first when I FIRST go to campus on the 31st of August or whether to head straight to Triolo to claim my room... It's just a bit annoying because the residence is a 20 minute walk from campus and it'll piss me off if I have to double back with a suitcase.

Furthermore - the Lille public transport website Transpole (equivalent to Transperth) is useless!!!!!!!! Omg seriously. I spent, I kid you not, TWENTY MINUTES trying to find a public transport route from my hostel in Lille to the university!!!! The locations wouldn't load! When I finally got the stupid program to recognise the departure and arrival points I wanted the program wouldn't actually produce any results! This means I am unprepared!! Tsk tsk not happy! I will just have to wing it when I arrive in Lille and ask questions.

Aside from these little things pissing me off though - things should be okay! I'm going to chill out on the hotel in Dubai on Friday (43 degree day... oh my god pooltime) and do my awsm evening desert tour! I'll arrive in Paris on Saturday night - stay overnight and be on my way to Annecy on Sunday by train :) My host family will meet me at the station. I sent Sylvie an e-mail about me with a couple of photos but I got no reply back - so I will have no idea who to look for when I arrive at Annecy. She did say on the phone though that she would be in Italy on holiday so we'll see!

Basically - I'm super keen to start learning me some real French :) The two week course at IFALPES is a 20-hour per week course that'll be full of grammar... but... oh well! I am just so excited to be in France, speaking French!

Anyway, I shall leave it here for now. Thanks for reading my stream of consciousness-style blog :P

Au revoir!

Je vais aller en France ! I'm going to France!

Hi all


It has been a fair while since my last blog - life just felt insanely busy with exams and overloading and two jobs arrrggh

I guess first news first: I RECEIVED MY ACCEPTANCE LETTER TO LILLE!! This was about a month and a half ago now - but - YES! I'm in!! It's all official!

Also in that time, I received an e-mail from the Student Mobility Office (aka Study Abroad) office stating that I also received the $3000 scholarship!! Whoop whoop! Flights and some accommodation have been booked and visas and insurance have been organised. I have also received confirmation that I will be staying at Residence Triolo in Lille!! Waah so happy :') I'll talk about each each part individually.

Acceptance
About two months ago I received an e-mail to my uni acct stating that I had been accepted to Lille! Included was a PDF of my acceptance letter (Lettre d'invitation) and they stated they'd also send me the original copy 'par courrier postal'. In this e-mail they provided me with a link with:

-the formalities of coming to a French university: http://www.univ-lille3.fr/fr/international/venir-etudier/programme-echange/
-a link to the courses available: http://www.univ-lille3.fr/fr/ (aka there university home page :/ )
-a link to Lille's own social network site: http://lille3-mobilite.ning.com/

I have joined the social network site but I haven't done much with it yet... I will write more about this next time if I use it!

There's not much I can expand on with regards to my $3k scholarship - the lady at the student mobility office said pretty much 99.9999% of people going on exchange will receive one. She just didn't want to guarantee it in case someone didn't qualify. I'd like to take the opportunity here to say I am not exactly uh... an excessively high achiever in my degrees. ... ...... When it suits me I can adapt very quickly to a "C's get degrees" mentality! Obviously I have at least a 65% average b/c I qualified for the exchange program but DON'T STRESS about scholarships if your grades aren't that high - you should still receive the scholarship. (ps I failed STAT1520 (statistics for business) but they overlooked that because most people fail it and it has nothing to do with my Arts degree teehee)

Now I am awaiting news about my OS loan application. $5611 interest-free loan that's simply added to my HECs debt? Yes please!! I need that money. Dear government please give it to me. Thank you!! I recently received an e-mail from UWA stating that they had received a general lump sum of money from the government so I infer they are now deciding how to distribute the cash to us poor students.

My flights. Hmm. A bit expensive. $2300... but ... it's with Emirates so it should be nice and comfy! And reliable. Dad's just like... "yeah I don't want you stranded flying with Air Asia" so yes.. all done and organised. I am stopping over in Dubai for one night in a 5star hotel! wewp! I'll arrive into Dubai in the early morning (I think 7ish am), then I'll head over to the Dubai mall to at least go to the aquarium (so keen) and to visit the Steve Madden shoe store!! This is very important peoples! ... ..... Then desert safari tour on quadbikes! (vrmmmmmmm). I'll hopefully squeeze in some lounging by the pool at the hotel with a cocktail :D then airport the next day and onwards to PA-REEEE !

My plan when I get into Paris is take a shuttle to my hotel (it was about $100 aud but worth it I think b/c it's a private shuttle and I won't get out of the airport until 10pm... late night... strange city... yeah... I don't want to try to find a taxi alone), sleeeep, then the next morning take a regional train to Annecy! Where I should be picked up by my host family at the train station and I can begin my two week intensive language course.

The visa process is not actually THAT hard, here is the link with all the straightfoward info: http://www.ambafrance-au.org/spip.php?article3546

It cost me just under $140. It's really annoying because they don't actually state what is the minimum amount of savings is proof of sufficient financial means. I sent along a bank statement with my visa application stating I had about $5k and my visa got processed fine. All up after sending it (I sent it in a next-day delivery envelope because I bought too many by accident...) I received my passport (with visa document inside) within 2 weeks. It's valid for 8 months from the date I fly into Paris. Weeeo

There is top quality insurance provided for free for the whole duration of my exchange plus 7 days before and after. This is actually amazing. Kudos to UWA for providing this. Seriously that is a wheelbarrow of cash I do not have to spend on a good policy. Those who are reading this and are considering exchange yourself, you can buy extensions of the same policy for a discounted price online! I won't go into details, when you attend your predeparture session you'll get lots of detailed info.

Which leads me to my next topic of rambling - the pre-departure info session! All in all really good, really organised, about 2.5-3 hours long during the study break. You get a folder with some extra documentation you need to fill out, e.g., the exchange code you use to enrol in so you can get cross-credits and other travel stuff. It's a compulsory session that should answer most questions!

And finally, yes, I received an e-mail yesterday stating that I have been successful in my application for Residence Triolo! Apparently this is one of the better residences at Lille 3. This is the website with information about the residences: http://www.crous-lille.fr/ but the actual APPLICATION for residence is very simple. What happens is UWA is first alerted that you are essentially chosen to go to Lille because Lille sends you, via UWA, an application form to fill out that asks name, address, course desired, etc as well as "would you like Lille to reserve a room for you in our residences? Which residence out of these three would you prefer"? That's it. That's how you actually apply for college residence. You fill in the form online, print it out and hand it back to the Study Abroad office and they send it off for you. It was a question that was bugging me for ages... slightly stressing me out. But never fear it all worked out in due time.

On that note I will conclude for now. Sadly it has taken me ageees before I got time to write this blog - but I feel it's quite an important one as a lot of big planning-things have fallen into place. (e.g., I got my visa, booked flights, received confirmation letter, got my scholarship etcetc)

I can breathe a sigh of relief in that most of the large bureaucratic/official matters are taken care of. Now it's down to the little niggly things like buying a case for my sunnies and organising my documents, booking regional trains and hostels and TRYING TO STUDY FRENCH. haha it's terrible, I'm leaving the country in just over a month and I haven't done any hardcore French study. It's like... trying to study for an exam, I just can't stop procrastinating!  I tell myself it's because I just finished uni and I NEED A BREAK! Oh the luxuries of being able to think and do stuff in your native language. Oh well never mind, I'm fairly sure, like during exams, a pang of fear will shoot through me and I will start cramming like CRAZY in the two weeks before I leave! I reason that after even just a few days of intense French study during the semester I begin to think in French so I should be fine. ...should be.

Will update before I leave Perth!
Au revoir!




















 

Just because I can!

For all you folkies who are interested in exchange, here's my statement of objectives that got me through to the next round in my initial application :)

My main academic motivation for studying at Charles de Gaulle University in France is to significantly improve my French language skills. I've always perceived French as a beautiful language but an unattainable one. When I enrolled in Arts & Commerce at UWA and saw that Arts offered beginner-level French - I jumped at the opportunity to learn and was excited and awed that speaking French could become a reality for me. My enjoyment of learning French really surprised me. I found it incredibly satisfying that I was learning a language that I once thought was out of my reach and ability. Whilst the University of Western Australia provides a sound language course for French, by the first semester of second year, it was occuring to me that I wasn't fully utilising the language and optimising my learning. I felt the main deficiency in my education was my oral confidence. My inability to converse with confidence in French was something that deeply bothered me due to two reasons; firstly, I prided myself in studying French, so any gaps in my ability had to be rectified, and secondly, I had elected French as my Arts major and felt compelled to excel in it. I found myself in a dilemma after the commencement of semester one 2010. I wanted to be accomplished in French but I was finding it hard to allocate time and resources during the semester to maximise my performance. Studying French in Perth means studying in an artificial environment. The grammar was taught well but there were limited opportunities at university to practise speaking. I felt time-constraints like studying for other units and working casually were barriers to fully experiencing French. The incompatibility of wanting to excel in French and not having adequate time to study led to an overarching feeling of dejectedness and a disturbing sentiment that I was wasting my time studying university-level French. The general consensus I arrived at through discussing my concerns with other French students and my teachers was that language-learning was maximised by living in a country in which the language is spoken. In a university context Student Exchange was the ideal pathway for an enthusiastic student like me to take. Aligning with my academic motivation to study in France, the main challenge I hope to face and conquer on exchange will be effectively engaging in French conversation. I really hope to improve my skills in general expression and I want to expand my French vocabulary. I want to reach a level of language proficiency where I can live and interact with the French authorities and other French nationals.

Round 1 Admin...

Allo

I feel it's time for an update! I have been incredibly busy - as to be expected - running around doing assignments and trying to get my preliminary exchange preparation stuff in order!! Let's see...

Unit approvals
I was running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out what units to put down for my approval. If you're doing an exchange under Arts, the whole process is a little different so my first confusion was do I need to fill in both the attached unit plan worksheet AND e-mail the Arts faculty as well? Turns out I just needed to e-mail the arts faculty first.

Then; I needed to be aware of what Arts units I still needed to do in general, so had to spend some time with the lovely and patient lady at the front desk :) she helped me nut out what units I had done and how many units I still needed to do. Armed with this information, I had a clearer idea of what units to look for in France.

Problem: where to find units? The French are notorious for their bureaucracy and my past experience with French (university) websites is is that they are not as organised and straightforward as UWA's. Anywho... after much (much) searching and exercising my French skills, I found the PDFs that listed units in detail.

I basically have one more French language unit to do (French Advanced II) and then French electives to finish off my French major. My 'French for Foreigners' unit in Lille will be the equivalent to that: all good. I've decided to continue on my English major... I might as well since I can meet the minimum number of units required. I'll paste what I put down as my unit plan :)

Unit plan
French for Foreigners (counting towards my French major, upper level, substitute to core unit French Advanced II, FREN3306)

Translation (Translating French into English) (general elective, upper level unit)

French linguistics (I would like this to be a level one general elective linguistics unit)

European Literature and Culture (an elective counting towards my English major, upper level)


Introduction to Information Sciences and Discourse (a general elective, upper level unit)

I've basically configured all these Lille units to count towards pretty much anything except my French major. My master plan behind this is to try to knock out some of the random general units and random English units I still need to do to finish my degree whilst simultaneously leaving me opportunities to do French units when I come back to UWA. I want to still be able to do French upon my return in 2012 through French electives. This is an attempt to preserve my the language skills I have picked up in France! Maketh senseth? :)

Everything I do must be done to extend the amount of opportunities I have to engage in the French language! Bon! (PS all my units will be in French. It won't matter what I make Lille units count towards to really, because I will still be achieving my main objective: improving language skills.)

Alors... So so after I e-mailed off my study plan to the Arts faculty advisor, I still had to hand in some hardcopy documents I received in my acceptance package for the Arts faculty advisor to sign. Arts then conveniently transported that document over to Business for the Biz Dean to sign as well - even though I wasn't doing my Business component on my exchange. This process was a grey area to me for a while. What if my documents got lost in transportation? How will I know whether Business will then forward the documents straight to the exchange office? Will they let me know if they do? I have a deadline to hand these things in!! Stressss.Turns out Business rang me to come pick up all the signed documents so it was all good :) life skilz babeh. Or at least - UWA admin will look after your stuff.

So okay; next on my agenda: loans.

OS LOAN
An OS loan is an extension of HECS. The government gives me a lump sum of monies and I pay that off with the rest of my HECS debt. So... how to get this loan? I'm lucky I didn't assume the exchange office would put in an application for me automatically, even though I checked the box I would be going for an OS loan in my initial exchange application. I typed in "OS LOAN" into the UWA search box and I immediately found the form I needed to fill in.

After perusing the form, I realised I needed to get it in by May 21st but I wouldn't have a clue if my formal exchange acceptance would arrive from Lille before then (you need the acceptance letter from host university in order to complete loan application process). I worried about it a bit, asked some questions and finally made an appointment with the finance officer in student services. She advised me to lodge the application without the official French acceptance so I was in the system and to simply forward on my Lille acceptance e-mail/letter when I received it. Too easy. Because I'll be doing my exchange as part of a formal exchange program, I didn't have to attach any study plans or anything!! One application form and one debt-declaration/confirmation thing and I was done for that loan. So: hopefully the government will give Jess $5611 for funtimes in France!! :D

As for the Study Abroad scholarship of approx $3k, I just have to wait and see for that. I should get it. Hopefully. The exchange office lady said about 99% of people going on exchange will receive some money from the university one way or another!! So pleaseee! Give me moneh!

So that's a run down of the admin stuff I've done since receiving my UWA acceptance of exchange but before I've received my formal acceptance from Lille. There's still a fair few things I'll have to do. Look into student accommodation is the next thing on my list. *shudder* I am not looking forward to that task. I need to go to the student accommodation website... thing... it's called "CROUS" something something. It's all in French. Funtimes. After that I need to research what the process for obtaining a student visa is - I should do this even before I receive my Lille acceptance. ...I just know I'll be spending a couple of hours there nutting out the bureaucracy of that. Then after that... I should be looking at flights and insurance!!! :D

Anywho, glad I've logged all this down.
Wishing myself luck for the next few months...

A bientôt tout le monde!